


in just four minutes

by ashleygail



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe- College/University - Freeform, And They Were Room Mates, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mentions of Alcohol Consumption, Mentions of homophobia, OMG They Were Room Mates, Recreational Drug Use, Roof Top Shenanigans, Slowburn Relationship, adding tags as story progresses, idiots to lovers, mentions of biphobia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-03-05
Packaged: 2019-10-24 15:36:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17706959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleygail/pseuds/ashleygail
Summary: His dorm mate crawled out from under the single bed, a sock stuck in his messy brown curls and his thick rimmed glasses sliding his nose. He grinned toothily and stuck his hand up from the floor. “Sup, roomie! Richie Tozier is the name, voices are my game!”Fucking fantastic, Eddie thought to himself. He’s hot.[or: Eddie Kaspbrak hadn’t planned on being an absolute cliche the fell in love with his college dorm mate, but ain’t that just the way. To add insult to injury, said room mate has a girlfriend … doesn’t he?]





	1. Trope: Meet Cute

“Yes, Ma.” Eddie Kaspbrak said, tugging his suitcase behind him and cell phone tucked between his ear and his shoulder. “ _Yes, I know._ You don’t need to treat me like a bab- Okay, yeah, Ma! I’m going to take them! You know I will! MA! Ma, I need to unlock my… yes! I know you hate the idea that- No, I got a private room! Yes, I did. _Yes, I did! MA! PLEASE!_ I need to unlock my room, I can’t just- Ma… Ma, I’m going to hung up on you. Yes, I am! What do you mean I won’t, of course I- Ma, Ma, MOTHER! I’m hanging up now… No, I didn’t hang up-“

Eddie exhaled roughly, shooting a dirty look at the boys staring at him from across the hall through their open dorm door. And no, Eddie _hadn’t_ gotten a single room because they cost an entire $1,500 and Eddie was frankly excited at the prospect of making friends in school. God knows it had been hard enough to make friends living in Derry with his mother breathing down his neck his whole life. That little thought brought a spark down Eddie’s back, realizing that Sonia Kaspbrak couldn’t breathe down Eddie’s neck here unless he let her.

Smirking to himself, he took his phone from his ear and hit end call. He’d probably be paying dearly for that later, but he couldn’t have been the worst decision he’d made recently in his mother’s eyes. Hanging up on her would have to land somewhere between coming out of the closet and choosing to attend college on the actual other side of the country. Eddie would have gone further if he could have, but NYU would have to do.

He slide the key card into his lock and watched the door light glow green. Grinning to himself, Eddie pushed the door open a little overexcitedly and stumbled into the room. His roommate had cleared already been here, his stuff scattered across one of the beds and one of the desks, but the boy in question wasn’t anywhere to be seen. It was a pretty small room, but Eddie hadn’t expected anything larger. Putting his suitcase leaning up against the free bed, Eddie jumped and gasped as he became aware of the rusting under the bed. _Oh god, there wouldn’t be_ rodents _in a dorm room would there…_

His dorm mate crawled out from under the single bed, a sock stuck in his messy brown curls and his thick rimmed glasses sliding his nose. He grinned toothily and stuck his hand up from the floor. “Sup, roomie! Richie Tozier is the name, voices are my game!”

_Fucking fantastic_ , Eddie thought to himself.  _He’s hot._

Richie seemed to realize pretty quickly that Eddie wasn’t going to give him a response and pushed himself up to his feet. He scratched at his neck, then pulled the sock from his hair. Tossing it over his shoulder onto his bed, Richie smiled. “Sorry if I scared ya, being down there. Had to put away the prime goods.”

Eddie raised his brow, wondering what kind of illegal things his dormmate was hiding under his bed on move in day. Deciding it was better to let it be than start some sort of fight on day one, Eddie gave a small chuckle. “Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting to meet you crawling out from under the bed, but I can’t deny you know how to make an impression.”

Richie openly beamed, cheeks turning a little pink and bounced slightly on his toes. “Oh, we’re going to be _best_ friends! I know it. What’s your name?”

Eddie couldn’t help but burst out laughing, leaning over to open his suitcase. “I’m Eddie Kaspbrak.”

“Eds!” Richie cheered, flopping backwards onto his bed. Right on top of half his belongings, groaning slightly, and pulling a laptop out from under his back.

Eddie raised his eyebrows but gave Richie only a simple response of: “Don’t call me Eds. My name is Eddie.”

Richie smirked at Eddie, who got the distinct vibe that he’d be hearing _a lot_ of Eds for the next year. Richie glanced at Eddie’s single suitcase and frowned. “Is that all you brought?”

Eddie sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah. I’m getting my mother to send the rest of my stuff since I didn’t want to pay the extra to take it with my own the plane, and I hadn’t even know if I was going to be able to come until like… last weekend, so we didn’t have a chance to arrange things before hand.”

Richie’s brow pinched, and he looked- if Eddie had to describe it- as somebody who was fighting against his own brain. “Okay, well…” Richie smiled. “Since you _are_ here, we’re going to make the best of it! Come out for food with me. My buddies are all meeting at this little café on campus, my girlfriend started here last year because she’s some sort of genius or whatever, and they say it the place to be! And they’re definitely the people to be around, so, win win.”

“I…” Eddie said slowly, letting the information roll over him. He shook his head. “I need to unpack.”

“Unpack later!” Richie cheered, jumping up and tugging at Eddie’s arm to get him standing straight up. “Your stuff isn’t going anywhere, and it’s only suitcase! Don’t tell me you aren’t starving, I bet you haven’t eaten all day.”

“Well..” Eddie said, feeling his face heat at the truth. He _hadn’t_ eaten all day, he was too nervous to eat with his mother and the idea of eating plane or airport food made him sick. He hadn’t even realized that he was hungry until Richie had suggested food, but he could now feel his stomach’s disappointment. “Okay. But you can’t complain when I’m still unpacking in the middle of the night, because it’ll be all your fault.”

Richie smiled and tossed an arm around Eddie’s shoulder. “I shall _never_ complain about you, Eddie Spaghetti!”

“Oh my God, that’s worse!”

xxx

Richie showed Eddie around the campus. “I’ve been here once or twice. My girlfriend has been going here since last year, so I know some basic stuff. I couldn’t help you get to class or anything boring like that, but I know which Starbucks always has the smallest lines and what time of day is best to get a burrito. If you eat meat, I mean, my best friend Stan is a vegan. I think it’s because his boyfriend is one- he says it’s not, says it’s some saving the planet bullshit, but I really think it’s because if he eats meat then Mike won’t be able to swallow his cum, you know? Cuz of the animal products.”

Eddie blinked, struggling to keep up with the seemingly unconnecting words of Richie Tozier. “I feel like he wouldn’t be able to swallow the cum anyway,” he said finally, scratching at the back of his hand. “Human are mammals, wouldn’t cum be an animal product.”

Richie’s mouth dropped open and he slowed down to stare at Eddie with his head titled to the left. He grinned. “Edward Kaspbrak, I think I just fell in love with you.”

Eddie’s cheeks burned. “I… It’s Edwin. Not Edward.”

“Ew,” Richie said with a crinkle of nose. “Don’t tell people that. This is college, the perfect place to re-invent yourself. It’s _Edward_ Kaspbrak now.”

“Okay…” Eddie said slowly as they reached the little café that Richie had upsold so nicely. It was a beautiful little place, picturesque, that didn’t look like it belonged on any college campus. Admittedly, Cali Direct wasn’t exactly like what Eddie was imagined a campus would be like, nothing like he’d seen on TV. It took up nearly the entire downtown core, with the large buildings full of classrooms, and libraries, and the student houses. All the store shops and clubs on the streets were also catered to the student life. This little hole in the wall café didn’t belong here, but Eddie was happy that it was.

Richie grabbed Eddie’s hand and pulled him into the café, grinning from ear-to-ear as he came up to the table with three people about their ages sitting around a table. “GUYS!” Richie cried excitedly, too loudly probably, but it made a smile tug at Eddie’s lips. “ _This_ is Eddie. He’s my room mate and the love of my life.”

Eddie groaned in embarrassment as Richie dragged him into the booth beside him.

A tall-seeming black man with bulging muscles in a yellow T-shirt whistled. “Not very respectful on your girlfriend there, Trashmouth. Declaring your undying love for a guy you juts meant right in front her. The _disrespect.”_

Richie blinked, and glanced towards the only girl sitting at table. She was beautiful, in a nature and genuine way, with long hair eyes and bright red eyes. Her face was dusted in freckled and she smiled at Eddie. “Richie can declare his love for whomever he pleases,” she said happily. “He knows our agreement.”

Richie waggled his eyebrows at her from across the table while the neat looking man in the button shirt beside her rolls his eyes. “I’d forgotten how unbearable you two are. Can we please go back to last year when we only saw Bev two or three times every couple months?”

“Awww, Stanny,” The girl- Bev- cooed, reaching out to pinch at the man’s cheeks. “I know you missed me!”

“Missed you?” Stan said, glowering at her. “Maybe. But I can tell you that I did not miss the chaotic energy that is Bev and Richie.”

“Uh,” Richie cut in, waving his hand in Stan’s face. “It’s _Beverie._ It’s about time you start getting the terminology right! It’s only been what? Five years?”

_Five years,_ Eddie thought to himself. Sure, he’d only known his roommate for about an hour, but Eddie thought the guy seemed to be a bit of a beautiful disaster. A hot mess, if you would. Richie Tozier was likely good for flings and hook ups, but Eddie found it a little hard to believe that Richie had been in such a long term, committed relationship. Maybe someday, sure, of course, but already?

Richie had turned to him and was beaming, Eddie startling as he realized he was being looked at. “What? I mean, yeah?” Eddie’s best friend, Bill, had told Eddie a way times that his blunt attitude came across as rude. It was one of the many things Eddie was hoping to change about himself in college.

Richie tilted his head and smiled at Eddie so softly that Eddie was sure he flushed. He could feel Stan and other man watching them, though Bev was much more interested in the fries on her friends’ plates. “You’re so cute,” Richie said happily, pinching Eddie’s cheek. “Cute, cute, cute!”

“Richard, tone it down.” Stan said sharply. “I already like this guy. He’s quiet and he looks clean. Don’t scare him off by being obnoxious.”

Richie clutched his chest and let out a soft, _oof_ sound. “You wound me, Staniel. Do you have no faith in my ability to make friends?”

“No, I do,” Stan said, sliding his plate away from Bev without so much as looking at her. Bev stuck her tongue out at him, and Stan gave the smallest hint of a smile while still not glancing in her direction. “I just don’t have faith in your ability to keep friends. I’ve known you fifteen years, and you’ve only managed to hold onto three friends.”

“Uh-“ The other man broke in, grinning. “ _Two_ friends. I’m not actually friends with Richie, I’m friends with you two and he’s just sort of came included.”

“Hey,” Richie pointed at his friend, eyes dancing with amusement. “Don’t act like you wouldn’t die for me.”

“I would not die for you,” his friend said with a deadpan expression.

“Kill for me?” Richie suggested, with a shrug and small smile. His friend tapped on the bottom of his chin then grinned.

“Maybe. In desperate situations only.”

“Aw, fuck ya,” Richie leaned back in the booth, his arm coming to drape across the seat behind Eddie’s shoulders. He looked over to Eddie and smiled. “Our man Mikey here likes to pretend he doesn’t love me, but we know it’s a lie. Last year, at this party-“

“Okay!” Mike laughed. “Eddie here, cute as he is, must be at least a level three to unlock high school stories. Sorry Eddie.”

“No problem,” Eddie laughed slightly. The rest of the hang out seemed to pass quickly, the warm and fuzzy feeling in Eddie’s chest growing as he felt more comfortable with Richie and his friends. By the time Richie turned to him and suggested they leave, Eddie was pretty sure he could’ve floated away.

“What do you say we head back to our room?” Richie suggested, waggling his eyebrows. “You do have that _whole suitcase_ to put away.”

“You don’t get crictize my suitcase when your side of the room already looks like that.” Eddie said, pointing at him but smirking all the same. His smirk turned quickly into a beam when Richie tossed a shoulder around his shoulder, tugging Eddie against his chest.

“Aw, Eds, you know exactly what buttons to push,” Richie laughed. “This is going to be an interesting year.”

_Yeah,_ Eddie though as his heart pounding. _It sure fucking is._


	2. Trope: Up on the Roof-Top

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Ed, Edd and Eddy,” Richie cupped Eddie’s chin and shook Eddie’s head from side to side. “First lesson; Stop asking what we’re allowed to do, and start thinking about what we are capable of doing.”
> 
> Eddie cocked his brow. “I thought lesson one was you can be whoever you want to be.”
> 
> Richie tapped his nose twice then pointed at Eddie with a smirk. “No, no, my love. That is overall course outcome. These lessons are just getting you there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter makes references to biphobia and homophobia! Also features marijuana usage!

“Hey, Eds.” Richie called over from his bed. It had been nearly two weeks since Eddie and Richie had become room mates, and Richie didn’t seem to much hesitation to settling in. His side of the room already seemed like a bomb had gone off in it. Granted, it had looked like on move-in day, but Eddie had let himself believe that it was because Richie hadn’t fully unpacked yet. Eddie’s hopes had clearly been misplaced, as Richie’s side of the room had only gotten worse as the days progressed.

It seemed, that in truth, Richie just owned too much shit. He had three cell phones, one which looked as though his parents had purchased for him in the seventh grade that was pink for some odd reason, a basic looking Android with a screen so shattered that Eddie was afraid to even pick it up, and the iPhone that Richie actually used. He had a broken in half skateboard shoved under his bed, and roughly 78 pairs of snapbacks though Eddie had never seen him wear one. Most alarming maybe, was the several pairs of bras that likely belonged to Richie’s girlfriend, though Richie had seemed horrified and uncomfortable when Eddie suggested that Richie just return them to her in order to clear out room in his drawers.

Eddie found the clutter not as bad as he would have expected to. He told himself that it least the mess was just Richie’s things- it wasn’t garbage or rotted food or anything disgusting. He could deal with Richie keeping clean clothes in a laundry basket because his closet was too full. He could.

“Eddie!” Richie cried again, dragging Eddie out from his inner rambles. Eddie turned to his room mate, who was seated on a giant purple bean bag chair on top of his bed. It was a compromise, from when Eddie told him there was no room for it on the floor. “Come look at posters with me!”

“Posters?” Eddie asked, pushing his laptop off his lap and moving towards Richie’s bed. “Are we allowed to put up posers? I thought we weren’t supposed to damage the walls.”

Richie grinned up at him. “We can put up anything on the walls, so long as when we leave it looks like we’d never been here. We can put up posters using sticky tact- then pray to whatever Gods we believe in that it doesn’t rip the paint off. Personally, I’m a fan of the Greek gods, you know? I’m big up in that Percy Jackson fandom. I just think it’s neat…”

Eddie raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips together to keep from grinning too obviously. There was a lot of things Eddie Kaspbrak liked about his room mate. He liked how Richie wasn’t that much taller than him, he liked that Richie seemed to have absolutely no upper body strength and therefore needed to Eddie to open jars and lift things for him, and he even liked how Richie’s hair never seemed to be the same kind of curly two days in a row. But he found that he especially liked how Richie could just… talk… for hours. Jumping from one subject to the next, throwing in jokes and sometimes not even knowing how he’d gotten to the talking point he was at. Eddie had never been particularly good at keeping up a conversation, and with Richie that was never a problem. And it was never quiet for long.

“Anyway!” Richie laughed, doing that _thing_ where his voice jumped a couple of octaves for no obvious reason that Eddie could see. Richie’s cheeks always turned a little pinker after it happened, and it made Eddie want to reach out and poke them. “I was looking at posters, and I was thinking that like we could do some pride ones? Subtly though, you know… not a giant ass pride flag on the wall! Unless you want that..”

Eddie frowned. “Why would we get pride posters? I mean, you don’t have to do that just for me.” Richie’s eyes seemed to freeze, pursing his lips out and tilting his head a little bit while still staring at his computer screen. “I mean, I appreciate it, really. But I was like the _only_ gay kid back home, I’m used it. We don’t need to go all out.”

Richie turned to Eddie and his smile seemed just that much more forced. “All the more reason to go all out! This is _college,_ my man! Run down the halls in nothing more than your underwear and a pride flag as cape! Pain your nails or like… fuck I don’t know. But there’s nobody here to tell you who you’re supposed to be. That’s what’s so great about it. You can be anybody.”

Eddie could take back all his lists of things he liked about Richie Tozier: his overexcited and unconditional acceptance of anything and everything was Eddie’s favourite part. Unable to keep his usual chill, Eddie leaned down and pressed his head against the middle of Richie’s arm. He resented that stupid on-the-bed bean bag chair that made Richie too high up for Eddie to rest his head comfortably on his shoulder.  

“You’re probably the most accepting person I’ve ever met,” Eddie said, mouth moving faster than his brain. “You know, back home, I was The Gay Kid. Nobody else was out or anything. So like, everybody made this big show of being accepting of me because it made them feel better about themselves. Like, they are homophobic if they don’t openly treat me like shit. But they always made a big deal about accepting me for being gay instead of just… accepting it and moving on. Even my best friend, you know, but I guess Bill tried. He was just straight.”

Richie chuckled, reaching up to pat at Eddie’s forehead without looking away from his computer. “I grew up in California, so I feel like _maybe_ we were a little bit more accepting. It was pretty chill to be gay, I knew a lot of gay people. My best friend is gay, and pretty much everybody we hung around with. The gay table. But anything more ‘complicated’ then gay or straight was pretty taboo. Which was… hard. I hated that shit.”

Eddie nodded. “Yeah, that stuff wasn’t even allowed to be talked about. Gay was hard enough for people in good ol’ Maine to understand. My mom sure like to believe in bisexuality though, when I told her I was gay. It was like bisexuality was a compromise, not it’s own thing.”

Richie rolled his eyes, and shifted so that Eddie was forced to sit up. “This is way heavy,” Richie chuckled, clearing his throat and scratching at his chin. “Big sad hours in the Reddie dorm! Have you been up on the roof?”

Eddie blinked. “I… Didn’t know we were allowed to be on the dorm roof.”

“Ed, Edd and Eddy,” Richie cupped Eddie’s chin and shook Eddie’s head from side to side. “First lesson; Stop asking what we’re allowed to do, and start thinking about what we are capable of doing.”

Eddie cocked his brow. “I thought lesson one was you can be whoever you want to be.”

Richie tapped his nose twice then pointed at Eddie with a smirk. “No, no, my love. That is overall course outcome. These lessons are just getting you there.” Richie dropped down onto his knees and fiddling around his bed until he pulled out a small metal box with a combination lock. Frowning in confusion, Eddie watched him type in the combination and pop it open. He didn’t understand what was happening until Richie pulled out a plastic baggie that was just a little _too full._

“Lesson 1.5,” Richie said with a grin. “Participation completely optional.”

Eddie swallowed roughly, looking at the bag. He had seen his fair share of 1990s after-school specials. He’d made it all the way through middle school and high school without ever being offered weed, never even seeing it outside of television. He cleared his throat and frowned once more, before looking up from the bag and meeting Richie’s gaze. There was something in Richie’s face, maybe the freckles on his nose or the way his eyes danced behind his stupid glasses, but Eddie sort of felt like he’d never trusted anybody more. Richie would never suggest he do anything that would hurt him, Eddie knew that.

“Alright,” Eddie said with a soft laugh. “Let’s go. Why the fuck not?”

Richie let out a squeaky, excited noise and jumped up. He took hold of Eddie’s arm and pulled him to his feet. Eddie swayed slightly, stumbling towards Richie. Richie grabbed hold of Eddie’s waist and held him still before their chests could end pressed together and knocking them to the ground. Richie stared down at him with wide, almost panicked eyes and Eddie swallowed roughly.

“Is.. uh…” Eddie freed himself from Richie’s hold and took two steps back, positive that he was blushing. “Are you going to invite your girlfriend?”

Richie blinked then crinkled his nose up. “Do you… _want_ me to invite Bev? Granted, she’d definitely bring her own weed so that would be like double if you think you’re going to smoke a lot but I doubt you will. If you’ve never done it before- you’ve never, right? I’m just guessing by the look on your face when you saw it but if you haven’t done it before, and you do too much then you’ll green out and that’s disgusting. You seem like the kind of guy who can’t deal with vomit at all. Stan’s like that, you know? Hates the stuff. But yeah, Bev always brings her own weed, it’s like my favourite thing about her.”

Eddie shook his head, frowning. “ _That’s_ your favourite thing about her?”

“Well. That and all the other stuff, obviously.” Richie said with a shrug, the blush on his face giving away his embarrassment. Eddie mentally added this to ever-growing list of things about his room mate that just made no goddamn sense at all. “Let’s go, Eds.”

Eddie followed Richie as he skipped out of the room, still shaking his head.

xxx

“This is the building Bev lived in last year,” Richie said happily, speaking over his shoulder as he guided Eddie up the set of stairs that he _definitely_ hadn’t noticed before. “She, Stan and Mike got into one of those non-school funded buildings, one of the really nice ones by the Chem buildings. Apparently, that’s like the hardest one to move into so it’s really impressive that they got in. Stan and Mike acted all butt hurt when they were only offered a two-bedroom because they’d have to share, but that was before they came out as a couple- even though we’d known for months they were together- so it was all just a show.”

“Why didn’t you get a place with them?” Eddie asked, fiddling with the zipper on his hoodie. It was a little bit too warm to be wearing it, but Richie had stuffed the weed into his pockets so Eddie hadn’t had much of a choice in the matter.

“Eh…” Richie said, uncommittedly, with a shrug. “I have a full ride here, so part of the deal with the school is that I have to live on-res for my first year. It’s not so bad, though. I’m kind of glad.”

Eddie laughed in disbelief as he and Richie sat down crossed legged on the gravel roof top. He pulled the weed and papers and a small metal circular thing that Eddie couldn’t even begin to guess what it was, and handed them to Richie. “You’re _glad_ you have to stay in some nasty college dorm instead of a fancy apartment with your best friends and girlfriend?”

Richie took some of the weed and dropped into the metal circle, pressing the lid back on and quickly grinding the top and bottom together. He finished, then looked up at Eddie with a small smile. “Yeah. Because if I hadn’t been forced to dorm, then I wouldn’t have met you, Eds.”

Eddie bit down on his lip, trying not to burn Richie with the force of the beam he wanted to let out, and watched Richie take the grinded up weed out of the metal circle and pressing into the rolling papers.  

“Okay,” Richie said, holding the finished joint out in front of him. “Sometimes I get… a little weird. So if anything goes… weird… just take out my cell and call Bev. She’ll know what to do.”

Eddie stared at Richie with wide eyes. “Weird _how_ exactly?”

Richie shrugged, smiling sheepishly. “Oh, you know… I sometimes get pretty spaced out and drift away from reality a little bit when I’m high.”

“That doesn’t sound normal. Is that normal?” Eddie asked, hearing the nervous pitch in his voice. Richie just grinned at him.

“Nothing about me is normal, man. You’ll have to learn that. Lesson 0.”

Eddie chuckled and watched as Richie lit the joint up.

Eddie was a little surprised at how it felt. If it wasn’t for the way his head seemed to float when he moved, or how his legs would occasionally twitch out of his control, he wouldn’t have known he was high at all. Maybe his blinking was a little slow, eyes staying closed a little bit too long, but it wasn’t anything like the terrifying experiences that day time television show cased.

Richie hadn’t seemed to have slipped out of reality like he’d warned that he might. He was laying flat on his back, head resting in Eddie’s lap, slowly working at the second joint that Eddie had declined, and talking a good mile a minute. Eddie wasn’t sure what he was talking about now. It had been penguins at one point, but Eddie was pretty sure he’d just heard something about guitar.

“Eds… EdsEdsEds…” Richie was suddenly swatting his hand against Eddie’s nose and giggling. “EDDIE. Do you want to go get Chinese food? There’s this great little place downtown, it’s so fucking amazing, best Chinese food in all of Cali I fucking promise. Do you want Chinese food? I really fucking want Chinese food right now, dude. Fuck.”

Eddie giggled and knocked Richie’s slapping hand away from his face. “I don’t think I can walk anyway. My legs keep twitching.”

Richie hummed, letting his eyes fluttering shut. “You’re zooming, bud. That’s the fucking best.”

Eddie laughed again. “I’m _what?_ What is that?” He asked but Richie was already flipping onto his stomach and looking up at Eddie with wide, hopeful eyes.

“What if I…” Richie asked, staring up at him, completely unwavering. It was the longest that Eddie had ever seen Richie make eye contact with somebody. “I can call Bev, get her to bring us Chinese up here? Then you don’t have to walk and we can still get Chinese food.”

Eddie hadn’t been hungry before, but now that it seemed as though Richie had said “ _Chinese food”_ about fifteen times in the last minute, he couldn’t deny that it sounded really fucking good. “Yeah, yeah, alright,” he said, petting mindlessly at the side of Richie’s face.

“Hey…Richie,” Eddie said because… well, fuck, Eddie didn’t know why he was saying it. Maybe he was way higher than he thought. Was weed like alcohol? Did it make just blurt out the most random of things that you should definitely never ask? “Are you in love with Bev?”

Richie blinked up at him. Eddie startled at his own question and moved to pull his hand away. Richie let out a pitiful whine and took Eddie’s hand and brought back to the side of his face. Richie didn’t answer until Eddie resumed petting at him. “I love Beverly very much…” He said sleepily. Eddie frowned, knowing that was _not_ the answer to his question. He found though, that he couldn’t focus on having a conversation and petting Richie’s face.

He still petting Richie when the door to the roof knocked open. Eddie didn’t even have the chance to be concerned before he was seeing Mike carrying two brown paper bags of Chinese food with Beverly perched on his shoulders.

It wasn’t until they were walking back into their dorm room when the darkness had overcome the roof, and Eddie had lost his high but Richie was still slightly out of it, that Eddie found himself thinking about how Richie hadn’t answered the question. Richie came to stand at the end of Eddie’s bed and smiled at him bashfully.

“Can I get in with you?’ Richie asked, with a small smile. “Sorry, I get really cuddley when I start to come down. And sleepy.”

Eddie wondered to himself then, that they’d just been with Beverly. If Richie had known he’d want to cuddle when he got back, then why didn’t he just go home with his girlfriend? But Eddie was a simple man, with simple needs, so he lifted the blankets and let Richie crawl in beside him.


	3. Trope: Drunken Confessions(?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nooo.” Richie pushed at Stan’s guiding hands. His glasses were off, stuck into the front pocket of Stanley’s shirt, and pants were already half off. The similar discomfort from the diner settled in Eddie’s chest again. “I wanna get in with Eds. I wan’ my Eddie.”
> 
> Stan raised his eyebrows, glancing over at where Eddie was sitting still in his bed. He tried to give Stan a smile, but Stan seemed to be against Eddie in this moment. Richie hadn’t slept in Eddie’s bed often, maybe only a few times after getting high, and he was always weird about it later. Eddie supposed he was a little weird about it later, too, because he knew it was wrong to like it as much as he did.

“Can I sit here?” The voice startled Eddie out of the daze he usually spent his business class in. Taking the business class had been a compromise with Eddie’s mother for letting him go away to school in the first place. She’d wanted to live, die and rot in Maine as she was going to do, but Eddie had wanted nothing more than to run far, far away from the state. (And her.) Agreeing to major in Business was the only way Eddie could get her to let him leave. He was planning on switching majors during the last call before Christmas break, but Sonia didn’t need to know that.

There was a tall boy with muscled arms and chubby cheeks standing in front of him, looking nervous and almost ready to run away. “I… A place in this class just opened up and it’s my first day, and everybody else looks…” The boy looked around the room, frowning and biting into his bottom lip. “Mean.”

Eddie nodded slightly. The other people in the business class where white men who looked like their daddies pay their whole ass tuition without blinking an eye, and white blonde girls who daddies paid the tuition and for their cars. Kids who’d have bullied him in high school. Eddie hadn’t bothered to get to know any of them, sitting in the back corner and tuning out the class everyday.

But this kid seemed genuine and Eddie cleared off his stuff from the seat beside him. “Yeah, business majors are the biggest problem with society these days,” Eddie said with a fake laugh. “I’m Eddie.”

“Ben.” Ben said, beaming at him. “I like your sweater.”

Eddie tugged at the sleeve of his sweater, which was in truth, Richie’s. He’d finally convinced his room mate after nearly two months to go through the insane amount of clothes in their room, and throw out all the things he wasn’t going to wear again. When Richie had gone to toss out the simple pastel blue sweater that had looked like it cost somebody a good chunk of cash, Eddie had stopped him. Richie had merely rolled his eyes when Eddie asked why he was throwing it out, claiming the sweater was “too fucking girly.” Eddie hadn’t seen anything girly about it, and had taken it before Richie could send it off to its death.

“Thanks,” Eddie said bashfully as his phone began to buzz in the pocket of his jeans. He gave his new friend an apologetic smile as he reached for it.

**New Text Message from Weird Room Mate** : edsssssssss the gang is meeting up for lunch at The Café. u in?

Eddie smiled, and glanced at Ben from the corner his eye.

**To Weird Room Mate** : May I bring a friend?

**From Weird Room Mate:** all friends welcome!!

Eddie turned to Ben and cleared his throat. “There’s a nice little café around here, I don’t know if you’ve ever been but… my room mate and our friends are all going for lunch. Do you want to come?”

Ben looked surprised for a moment, before covering it up with a huge smile. “That sounds amazing!”

Eddie beamed back.

xxx

Eddie slid into the empty seat beside Richie, leaving Ben to push in beside Stan and Mike. For a moment, Eddie realised that bringing Ben to lunch with two couples was sort of like bringing a date, but Eddie shook his head to clear _that_ thought.

Richie, it seemed, didn’t seemed deterred from thinking about it, if the way he was elbowing Eddie and waggling his eyebrows. _Shut the fuck up,_ Eddie told him with his eyes. Richie grinned toothily at him before sliding a plate over.

“I ordered for you,” Richie said, and Eddie smiled at the turkey sandwich and home fries on the plate now in front of him. It even had ketchup in a small circle to the side the way Eddie liked it. “So you wouldn’t have to deal with the judgemental eyes of Mike and the fake vegan when you ordered meat.”

“Would you stop!” Stan cried, rolling his eyes. “I didn’t know it was made with a cheese sauce, okay? Trust me, my stomach has already punished me enough!”

Mike chuckled, and wrapped an arm around Stanley. Eddie had learned pretty quickly over the last few months that Richie had absolutely no level of filter. He’d known pretty early on that that was the case, but he’d really had to face with Stan and Richie’s friendship. It wasn’t like any friendship Eddie had ever seen before, based almost entirely on pissing each other off and giving one another shit. It seemed to work for them, though, so Eddie never meddled.

“Thank you,” Eddie chose to say instead of making any sort of comment towards Richie’s picking at Stan. Richie reached out as though he were about to pinch Eddie’s cheeks, but thought better of it at the last second, and merely tapped his open palm on Eddie’s cheek twice.

Stan cleared his throat. “Edward. Are you going to introduce us to your friend or?”

“Oh!” Eddie cried, cheeks flushing. “This is Ben. He just switched into my business class. He also thinks everybody in there look like assholes. We bonded over that.”

“Anybody with half a brain would think those dicks in your business class look like assholes,” Beverly spoke up, putting an inhuman amount of wild berry jam on her rye toast. Ben looked over at him, and Eddie watched him realize that Beverly was beautiful. Saw the entire thing cross his face, Ben might as well have said _wow_ out loud when he looked at her.

Eddie glanced at Richie, but Richie was entirely too concerned with seeing how much maple syrup he could dump onto Beverly’s eggs before she noticed what he was doing. Eddie let his gaze lead up to Beverly, who seemed to be looking… back… at Ben. Eddie frowned and shook his head. He was nearly three months into knowing Richie and Beverly, and not any closer to understanding them than he was the day he met them.

“There’s a party!” Richie suddenly slammed his hands on the table, seemingly bored with coating Beverly’s eggs while she didn’t pay him any attention. The eyes at the table all turned to him. “Can we go? We have not been to a single party, and that’s a crime! A CRIME! I deserve to party! Bev!! Tell them I deserve to party!”

Beverly laughed, and it was moments when her eyes danced like that, Eddie knew she loved Richie. There was a lot of things Eddie didn’t understand, that she assumed that she never would, but the love that ran between Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh was undeniable.

“Nobody is stopping you from going to parties, Richie.” Beverly said, patting him on the shoulder and grinning. “Just because you’re afraid to go to parties alone. That’s your own problem.”

Richie whined and turned to Eddie, grabbing Eddie’s hands and pulling them towards his own chest. “Eds! Eddie Spaghetti, my one and the only, my light in the darkness!” Eddie rolled his eyes and a small smile rested on Richie’s lips as he continued. “Will you please, pretty please, come with to a party tonight? Please, please, for the love of all-“

Eddie pressed a hand over Richie’s mouth and gave him a withering look. “Richie you talk too much sober. I don’t know how I’m going to deal with you drunk.” Richie took on a wicked pout and Eddie sighed. “Partying isn’t really my scene, you know, Rich. And don’t turn this into some big lesson, I also have an assignment due in the morning. _Which_ I haven’t started, thanks to you.”

Richie openly whined down, bouncing in his seat and pouting wickedly. Eddie almost felt bad, if he hadn’t been trained to see the laughter in Richie’s eyes.

“I’ll take you, Rich,” Mike said suddenly, grinning wickedly. “Haven’t seen you shit faced in a good while.”

“Well, shit,” Stan said with an eye roll. “Guess that means I’m going too, then.”

Mike kissed Stan on the cheek and then quickly directed the conversation back to Ben before Richie could drag them into anymore ridiculousness. Ben seemed more shy around Eddie’s friends than he’d been in the business class, but Eddie watched him warm up.

“You know,” Beverly said suddenly, leaning forward on the table and smiling towards him. There was something _in_ the smile, that brought Eddie to pause. He looked at Richie once again, but Richie had been distracted by some sort of game of his phone. “I have to do a photoshoot for my photography class. You’d be just perfect, would you be interested in modelling for me?”

Eddie’s mouth dropped open, glancing around the table at the absolute lack of reaction from every other person sitting around him. Ben’s face burned bright red as he stumbled through an acceptance. Eddie picked at the turkey flakes on his plate, trying to ignore the growing discomfort in his stomach.

xxx

Eddie had finished his assignment at quarter after one in the morning, and chosen to simply stay awake. Mike and Stan would be bringing Richie back to the dorm soon enough, and it was easier to stay awake and wait for that, then be pissy when Richie wakes him up with his drunken behaviour. It was about two when Mike unlocked the dorm door and nodded at Eddie as Stan lead the stumbling Richie towards his bed.

“Nooo.” Richie pushed at Stan’s guiding hands. His glasses were off, stuck into the front pocket of Stanley’s shirt, and pants were already half off. The similar discomfort from the diner settled in Eddie’s chest again. “I wanna get in with _Eds._ I wan’ my Eddie.”

Stan raised his eyebrows, glancing over at where Eddie was sitting still in his bed. He tried to give Stan a smile, but Stan seemed to be against Eddie in this moment. Richie hadn’t slept in Eddie’s bed often, maybe only a few times after getting high, and he was always weird about it later. Eddie supposed he was a little weird about it later, too, because he knew it was wrong to like it as much as he did.

But Richie was kicking his jeans the rest of the way off and falling onto Eddie’s bed, forcing Eddie closer to the wall and dragging himself under the blanket. “Okay.” Stan sighed, placing Richie’s glasses on the table beside Eddie’s bed. “Eddie…”

Stan pointed at Eddie with a  serious look, and that was threat enough. Although Eddie wasn’t exactly sure what he was being threatened for. Then Stan and Mike were ducked out of the room and Richie was curling up beside Eddie. His eyes were closed, but his breathing was too erratic for him to be asleep.

“Rich…” Eddie said softly, waiting for Richie to hum in response. “Did it bother you when Bev and Ben were flirting today, or… whatever that was? Because you didn’t seem upset but you’re pretty good at keep secrets.”

Richie chuckled, letting his hand flop onto Eddie’s shoulder. “It didn’t bother me none, Edsy. Beverly is very _hiccup_ very beautifully, yeah? Your friend has good tastes. I wish them the best!”

Eddie made a confused noise, but Richie was shoving his cold feet under his legs and it turned into a loud yelp. “RICHIE!”

“Richie, Richie, Richie,” Richie mumbled. “You know, Eds… I’m so glad you’re embracing the name Edward. It’s stupid that we gotta… that we gotta keep the names our parents gave us. You know? They don’t… they don’t know us. They don’t know us well enough to pick our names.”

 Eddie frowned, shifting to look at Richie as best he could. Richie’s eyes were still closed, his face half-pressed into Eddie’s collar bone. “My parents picked a really dumb name for me.” Richie said, but the rest of his sentence was completely muffled into Eddie’s skin.

“What, Richie?” He asked, but Richie was already asleep.


	4. Trope: Fake Dating

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter warnings: mentions of transphobia, mentions of homophobia, sonia kaspbrak’s manipulative parenting.

Richie was understandably groggy the next morning when he rolls out of Eddie’s bed. He manages only to roll from the mattress onto the ground, groaning, and curling up into a ball once more. Eddie had already been awake for an hour or so before Richie showed even the smallest hint of stirring, and he’d prepared this type of reaction. Kneeling down in front of Richie, Eddie pushed at his room mates shoulder until he rolled over, glaring up at him.

“No.” Richie said, pouting kind of adorably up at Eddie. “Whatever it is you want, no. Just leave me here to die.”

“Advil. Water.” Eddie said simply, trying to keep his voice at a reasonable volume as he held up the objects in his hands. Richie’s face light up as much as it could will he still managed to look pretty fucking miserable. He accepted the medicine and beverage from Eddie as though they were the best gifts he’d ever gotten.

Richie had finished the water and the two of them have gotten back onto the bed when Eddie turned to Richie. Richie took one look at the seriousness of Eddie’s expression and seemed to panic. “Oh, shit,” he said under his breath, starting to shake his head. “Did I say something last night? Something embarrassing? Okay, no, actually don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” Eddie raised his eyebrows but Richie’s mouth was off running before Eddie had a chance to say a damn thing. “Actually, tell me. I think I should know… except, you know, is it really bad? Do I not _want to_ know? Eddie!! Is it bad?”

“Richie,” Eddie clapped his hands to the sides of Richie’s cheeks and forced him to meet his gaze. “You didn’t say anything bad or embarrassing, at least not after you got back here. You barely said anything at all, you passed out pretty much the second you got into the door.”

“Oh. Okay,” Richie nodded, seemingly almost too relieved. He was still rubbing his hands together anxiously and Eddie almost abandoned this whole thing right then. “Then… what? Why do you look so serious?”

“It’s… a bunch of things?” Eddie said, frowning. “It’s… I feel like we get along really well, I like to think of you of my closest friend here. I do, you’re like my best friend.” Richie beamed, letting himself lean a little bit more into where Eddie was touching him. “But it’s also…. you’ll just do something, or say something, I know you aren’t telling me stuff. You don’t have to tell me anything, obviously, but it just… it’s like you don’t think we’re friends the same way I do.”

“ _Eddie.”_ Richie said, sounding almost pained. He took hold of Eddie’s hands on his cheeks and clasped their hands together in their laps. “If Stan didn’t exist, you’d definitely be my best friend! I know what you’re talking about, the weird stuff, and I was going to explain everything, I don’t know why I… Didn’t. I guess I was just after it would ruin everything.”

“Richie…” Eddie looked at Richie’s face, scanning it slowly while Richie seemed to thinking through his words in a way that Eddie had never seen him do before. “You don’t have to tell me anything you’re not comfort-“

“Eddie, I’m trans.” Richie said quickly, squeezing his eyes shut and squeezing tightly at Eddie’s hands. Eddie blinked, letting the spat out information wash over him. He let it settle over him, shifting all the things of the past few months fall into place.

“Oh.” Eddie said, nodding now. Richie’s eyes flew open, seeming panicked. “That’s actually makes sense, yeah, I see that now.”

“Is it…” Richie cleared his throat, looking like he was trying to find the closest escape route from their shared dorm while still fighting off a killer hangover. “Is that a problem? Do you hate me?”

“What? No!” Eddie tilted his head down so it was level with Richie’s downcast eyes. “Absolutely not. _Richie,_ you’re the exact same person you were before we had this conversation. Nothing is different.”

Richie pressed his lips together as though he was trying not to cry and tossed himself forward, wrapping his arms around Eddie’s shoulders. Eddie let out a startled little laugh, patting Richie’s back in what he hoped was a very platonic fashion. Richie pulled back, wiping at the hints of tears, and gave Eddie a smile so soft that it made Eddie’s stomach clench up.

“I’ve been going by Richie since like eighth grade,” Richie said, seeming unable to stop talking about it now that the door had been opened. “Stan was the first person to ever call me that, and it was just… you know?” Eddie didn’t know, but that didn’t seem to detour Richie at all, and Eddie wouldn’t have wanted to. “Kids are school were little assholes, you know. They didn’t get it, at all. Sure, we were just kids and one day I was somebody and then I started becoming somebody else. My parents wanted to move us to a different town when I started to transition, I’m not sure if it was _for_ me or _because_ of me.”

Eddie nodded slowly, rubbing his thumbs along the backs of Richie’s hands.

“And then one day…” A starry look came over Richie’s face. “These kids were just being their usual asshole selves, whatever, going on about how I’d ever get a girlfriend if I was trans, that I should have just been a lesbian- as if I was fucking bisexual as the colour purple-“ Eddie’s eyes widened, never having heard anything about Richie being anything other than heterosexual before, but Richie ran right past it. “And Bev comes up, she takes my hand and turns to those douchebag kids and says that I won’t need to find a girlfriend because I already had one.”

“That’s how you guys got together?” Eddie asked, forcing a smile. It was a _hell_ of a story. Pretty fucking amazing, actually, some serious TV shit. An odd expression came over Richie’s face and he looked slightly over Eddie’s shoulder, smiling slightly to himself.

“I’m assuming…” Richie said slowly, starting to grin. “That my relationship with Bev is some of the weird stuff you’ve been noticing?” Eddie felt himself blush, and shrugged slightly. “Bev and I have never been together. For like, one second.”

Eddie opened his mouth, closed his mouth, then opened it again. “Come again?”

Richie laughed. “Bev pretending to be my girlfriend when we were thirteen was like some sort of weird armour. It didn’t stop all the bullshit transphobia, but I think it really did help. Like those straight boys could make fun of me all they wanted, but I was dating the hottest chick in school, you know? Humbled them a little bit, between the beatings.”

Eddie shook his head, wishing he couldn’t relate to that. Wishing that there wasn’t anything to relate to in the first place. Wishing it was a better world for them both. But Richie was still smiling, and Eddie didn’t want to interrupt the flow of Richie’s words.

“And so long as either of us ever found anybody we really wanted to be with, we didn’t see any reason to stop presenting ourselves as a couple. I don’t think even Mike knows we’re not really together.” Richie crinkled his brow, confused and set off course for a moment. “And up to now, we haven’t found anybody we were interested in. So.”

Eddie and Richie made eye contact for the first time since Richie had started speaking, and they both smiled in unison. Eddie squeezed their hands again and cleared his throat. “I got… I got a lot of shit in high school, too. I don’t think it’s the same of whatever you had to go through but I was gay, and you know... I seemed gay. Looked act, acted gay? People were calling me gay before I knew what gay even was, really. Then there was all the stuff with my ma.”

“What about your mom?” Richie asked, and it seemed like he must have been able to see the way Eddie started to shut down at the question. “Hey, no. You’ve like, never told me about your parents. I won’t _make you,_ but it seems fair, don’t you think? I just-“

“My dad died when I was five. Cancer.” Eddie said with a sigh. “I feel like it broke my mother, in some terrible mental way. She was, _is,_ fucking nuts. She had me on all these fake pills, and made think I had asthma even when I didn’t, as some sort of weird control thing? I want to say it’s because she was worried about me getting sick and dying like Dad, but I had to sneak out and illegally get my vaccinations when I was sixteen because she thought they’d cause autism.”

Richie stared at Eddie for a long moment. “That’s… Jesus, Eds, what the fuck, actually? I thought those anti vaxxers were a Internet meme.” Eddie burst out laughing, and he laughed so hard that tears welled in his eyes and fell down his cheeks. Richie Tozier reminded him everyday why he was Eddie Kaspbrak’s favourite fucking person in this world.

They both fell backwards onto Eddie’s bed, side by side, staring up at the ceiling while Eddie still let out little chuckles. “Looks like we both have some shitty origins,” Eddie said with a small wheeze.

Richie chuckled beside him. “All the best stories do.”


End file.
